The National Lottery’s Big Night of Musicals will return to the AO Arena in Manchester early next year, with free tickets.
The huge event will be hosted by local comedian Jason Manford, and will bring together jaw-dropping performances from the biggest West End and touring musicals.
Audiences will be treated to hits from shows including Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, A Chorus Line, Moulin Rouge! The Musical, GREASE, Hadestown, and Guys & Dolls.
The massive glittering event will take place on Monday 22 January, to be aired on BBC One, BBC Radio 2 and BBC Sounds at a later date.
And tickets for The National Lottery’s Big Night of Musicals are completely free – all you need to do is be a National Lottery player.
ADVERTISEMENT
The 12,000 free tickets will be available on a first-come, first-served basis from 1pm today, Thursday 30 November, at bignightofmusicals.com.
The event has been created to thank National Lottery players, who in the past year have helped support over 750 theatre-related projects across the UK.
ADVERTISEMENT
Jason Manford will be joined by special guest, West End legend and singing sensation, Beverley Knight, who has starred in theatre shows including The Bodyguard, Cats, Memphis, Sylvia, and Sister Act.
Moulin Rouge will be one of the shows in The National Lottery’s Big Night of Musicals. Credit: Marc Brenner
The National Lottery has awarded more than £517m to arts projects across the country, with £46m of this going towards theatre related projects.
For The National Lottery’s Big Night of Musicals, players will be able to reserve up to four tickets for free, plus a £2 booking fee applies per ticket and proof of purchase of a National Lottery product is required.
ADVERTISEMENT
Comedian, musical theatre performer and host Jason Manford said: “I’m thrilled to be hosting The National Lottery’s Big Night of Musicals once again.
“We’ve got another amazing line-up of smash hit shows for the Manchester Arena audience to enjoy. And the best thing about this show is that the tickets are free!
“It’s a thank you from The National Lottery to all the people who have supported the performing arts through these crucial years by playing each week.”
Beverley Knight, who also performed in the 2022 launch of The National Lottery’s Big Night of Musicals, said: “It’s great to be coming back to be part of this incredible show. The support National Lottery players make to the theatre industry is crucial to the performers and myriad of people – at large and small venues – who help make a night at the theatre so special.
“I can’t wait to see this astonishing line up of talent in Manchester belting out musical classics.”
A brand new grunge and hard rock festival is kicking off in Manchester
Danny Jones
Manchester grungers, hardcore heads, and fans of all things rock, pay attention because there is a brand new festival coming to the city centre – and it has possibly the best name for a live music event we’ve heard in some time.
Ahem… let us introduce you to Broken Knees Fest.
Yes, donning a name that feels increasingly more relatable the closer we get to the wrong side of 30, Broken Knees Festival 2025 marks the inaugural edition of Manchester’s newest series of rock and grunge gigs, helping spotlight rising artists across the genres from within two crucial grassroots venues.
Very loud music inside tightly-packed, small-capacity rooms? It’s a winning formula that never fails. It’s about time we broke a sweat – here’s hoping the knees just about hold out.
Hosted in the heart of the Northern Quarter, which continues to thrive as a creative hub for new music and art of all forms, the festival will be debuting at small-cap favourites Gullivers and Castle Hotel just across the road.
As you can see, the lineup is full of up-and-coming talent within the guitar-driven space, but you can bank on more than a few bringing their die-hard fans to fill the place out to the rafters.
It doesn’t matter if you prefer punk, hardcore, grunge or another specific sub-genre found somewhere in between the ever-sprawling rock spectrum, there’s something to suit all alternative tastes at this one.
With the likes of Bohmen, Mavis, One Dimensional Creatures and Smother headlining the first-ever iteration of the festival across four stages, you can expect plenty of energy and even more noise.
Set up by the events group of the same name, Broken Knees Promotions, who help platform rock and alt acts across Greater Manchester and beyond year-round, this is more than just a festival: it’s a grassroots celebration through and through.
Best of all, if you’re interested, you don’t have to wait long because it’s kicking off next month.
Gigs go off in here. If you know, you know… (Credit: Audio North)
Broken Knees Fest 2025 is happening on the weekend of 21-22 June, and you’ll be glad to hear that, as a brand new event, prices have been kept nice and low.
The early bird window had prices starting from just £12, and although this tier has now sold out, day tickets are still only £15 while a full weekend pass will set you back £25.
Until then, why not dive into another load of new Manchester music? We round up artists from all genres each month; we’ll also confess to leaning slightly more towards the heavier stuff from time to time.
Major star pulls out of Parklife festival due to ‘scheduling conflict’
Daisy Jackson
One of the biggest attractions of this year’s Parklife festival line-up has pulled out just weeks before the event.
Rising star and TikTok sensation Lola Young will no longer be performing at the huge Manchester festival.
She’s the voice behind ‘Messy’, that song you can’t get out of your head (or off your For You Page), and has already earned herself two BRIT Award nominations.
Lola Young was one of the biggest names announced on this year’s Parklife line-up, which has headline slots from Charli XCX, 50 Cent, Jorja Smith and Peggy Gou.
She was set to perform on the Saturday of the festival, taking place on 14 and 15 June.
But Parklife has now confirmed that Lola Young has dropped out of the lineup owing to a ‘scheduling conflict’.
In a post on Instagram they wrote: “Due to an unavoidable scheduling conflict Lola Young will not be performing at Parklife 2025.
“We would like to apologise for any disappointment.
“Full set times will be published at 5pm Tuesday 20th May on the PL25 App where we will also be announcing some surprise additions to the weekend in the run up to the festival.”
Parklife will be taking place next month in Manchester – you can keep up with the latest HERE and grab final tickets HERE.
Daisy Jackson -
30th November 2023 
